Ohio Hispanic Veterans Memorial groundbreaking recognizes project that 'began in the heart of Cel Rivera'

LORAIN — By November, Lorain hopes to be home to the state's first Hispanic veterans memorial. The Ohio Hispanic Veterans Memorial Committee hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking Saturday for the site at the eastern edge of Oakwood Park, more than three years since the project was announced. Councilman Antonio Baez, D-6th Ward, recognized the project's long wait to add Lorain to the cities with Hispanic veteran memorials in the country alongside Sacramento, California, and Buffalo, New York. Sacred Heart Chapel Pastor Bill Thaden said once built, the memorial will be a place of emotion — pride of culture and family, of sadness of those lost and hope for a future of peace. Late Police Chief Cel Rivera proposed the expansion of Lorain's Hispanic veterans memorial after his retirement. He and wife Elba Armstrong visited memorials hundreds of miles away before bringing plans to Mayor Jack Bradley to expand the smaller memorial for the city's veterans to include all Hispanic and Latino veterans in the state. Rivera died in 2022. Bradley said Rivera and Armstrong came into his office with photographs of other memorials they had visited and wanted to see something similar in Oakwood Park. "It is my understanding this is the first Hispanic Veterans Memorial in the state of Ohio," Bradley said. "And that's what we like about Lorain, we like that we're a city of firsts. We're a city of working together. We're a city that is proud." Casimiro Rodriguez Sr., president and founder of the Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York, remembered when Rivera reached out to him about the Hispanic American Veteran Memorial in Buffalo, where Rodriguez serves as treasurer. The Hispanic American Veterans Memorial at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park broke ground in 2011 and was completed in 2013. Rodriguez visited Lorain and met with Rivera, a U.S. Army veteran, several times to discuss a vision for the memorial. He gave Rivera a binder with every bit of fundraising information he had on how volunteers in Buffalo raised $250,000 for the monument there. "It brought a sense of joy to my heart to see something unfold of this magnitude that began in the heart of Cel Rivera," Rodriguez said. "I did not know Cel before I met him regarding this project — his heart and soul was in this (monument)." Baez said the goal is for the memorial to be dedicated near Veterans Day this fall. He said work will be weather-dependent and estimated the total project will cost about $500,000 — much of that paid through in-kind donations and monetary support from the community. To help fund the project, the Ohio Hispanic Veterans Memorial Committee is selling brick pavers to sponsors — an idea born of the Buffalo group's binder of fundraising programs — that start at $125. For more information, visit ohvm.org. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.